The Unmarried Weasley
by claimingtheanonymous
Summary: Set after the Battle of Hogwarts, we witness the taming of Charlie Weasley, the dragon tamer, by someone who was just as unsuspecting of him as he was of her. Rated M for mature themes and swearing. You have been warned.
1. Unmarried my Arse

"Unmarried? Unmarried my _arse_!" She muttered quietly from across the room.

"What?" Charlie asked, looking up from the frying pan in which the almost blackened sausages were sizzling away. He looked up to find his wife's brunette head hidden behind a large newspaper, on which pictures moved and the words on the front page talked of a 'Golden Trio' and 'Krum's Final Victory". Her small hands shuffled the newspaper until she could be seen over the top of it.

"She said you were _single_!" She shouted at him, her brow furrowing in a way that told him he was in trouble.

"Single?" Charlie asked, leaving the stove and making his way to lean on the back of her chair to read over her shoulder.

"Here look." And she pointed to a line mid way through an article by a certain Rita Skeeter.

"The Unmarried Weasley!" She turned in her chair to face him, flattening the paper onto the table. Charlie met her glare with confusion evident in his own eyes. " _Unmarried_ Weasley!" She cried at him and pointed to her inflated stomach. "You call _this_ unmarried?" She yelled, her face going red and her chest turning somewhat blotchy as it did every time she was either embarrassed or angry.

"Love…" Charlie cooed, lowering his hands to cover her inflated stomach, rubbing soothing circles on its surface as he did so.

"Charlie!" She muttered, somewhat defeated, her head falling back onto his chest and her eyes closing. "I'm not invisible am I?" She asked half-heartedly.

Charlie looked down at her face, hair disorderly placed on top of her head, tanned skin, with the light smattering of freckles covering her skin, button nose and pink lips pursed.

"Definitely not." He told her and as she opened her eyes his lips met hers in a kiss so soft and gentle, she couldn't help but sigh contentedly.

Pulling back Charlie smiled at the calm that had settled over her features, he reached down and grasped her left hand that was resting on her stomach and brought it to his lips.

"I know you're not invisible because I can remember…in _vivid_ detail…every moment with you up until…now." With that his lips closed delicately over the ring on her fourth finger. "Unmarried she says? Unmarried my _arse_!"


	2. Mundane Meeting

_Thanks for reading! Sorry about the long wait in update...assessments and such. Now I don't really know who or what you're expecting of Charlie's girl...but I imagine her to be very mundane...not in all senses of the word but, especially in this chapter, it's honestly not that exciting, just getting to grips with their characters._

Charlie Weasley was in a muggle pub in central London, of all the places. It was three days after they had buried Fred and here he was, surrounded by his friends; Maria, David, Michael, Thea and Joe. It was their first meet up in over two years, what with the Dark Lord taking over and the lack of time they had just somehow not had the time. But now it was all over, there was nothing keeping them from meeting up, only grief and somehow that was something better shared, especially due to the fact that they had lost one of their own.

"To Tonks." Michael murmured into the silence, raising his glass of dark ale into the middle of the table, where it clinked against everyone else's as they too raised their differing drinks with mumbles of "Tonks" before swigging from the glasses.

"So…" Maria started with a sigh looking anywhere but in anyone's eye. "What have we missed?" She asked, slightly choking on a half laugh.

The rest of the booth laughed along with her, it seemed a stupid question in reality. They had grown up alongside each other throughout most of the teenage years. Seven years spent together created a close bond, something that could never really disappear. But in the following years they _had_ lost contact. Charlie remembered how the owls became less and less frequent, both on his part and theirs. They were growing up, moving on, they no longer relied on each other so fully as they once had. But now they needed each other once more, more than ever. Charlie looked from his left to his right, the faces of those he had loved had changed so drastically, he couldn't imagine what they saw on his face.

"Well…" Thea began carefully , looking toward Joe awkwardly before a soft smile took over her face and she turned away from him with a blush. "Me and Joe…"

"We all know _exactly_ what you two have been up to!" Michael interrupted with a laugh.

"Really?" Joe asked giving him a sharp look, as Thea lifted her left had to present them with a glittering ring upon her finger, which Joe took in his own.

"No way!" Charlie roared out, his hand reaching out to slap Joe on the shoulder.

"Yep." Joe replied with a blush taking over his face.

"When?" Piped out Maria who had the faintest hint of tears in her eyes.

"Just over a year ago." Thea replied. "We couldn't tell anyone, I'm so sorry none of you were invited, it was just he families…we didn't want to draw any attention." She pointed out quickly, taking Joe's hand in her own.

Thea Montgomery came from a long line of purebloods and as such had been approached by the death eaters, however seeing as how she was very much in love with, and had been for some time at that, with a muggleborn she tried to stay very far away form causing any trouble.

Though, as Charlie watched the couple in their glory, he felt his stomach warm some…it hadn't really all been for nothing perhaps.

"This is amazing!" Maria cried out raising her glass once more, though this time for something a little more cheering.

"Anyone else?" Joe called out to the ring.

Charlie looked about himself at the remaining others when Michael suddenly straightened his shoulders and raised his glass to the group.

"Although its is nothing quite as exciting as the last announcement," he commented, raising his glass at the glowing couple. "I do have a small announcement…I've had a promotion!" He half squealed in delight, nearly sloshing his drink across the table. "I'm going to be the deputy head of The Werewolf Registry office!"

There was a shout of congratulations from the surrounding booth, which they quickly hushed up to a quieter tone when they remembered that the neighbouring booths and tables were full of unknowing muggles.

"I'll tell Bill! He'll be happy to have someone on the inside!" Charlie told Michael with a grin.

"God of course! How's he doing after the incident! It's been so long!" Maria blurted out quickly.

"Oh he's fine. Gets real ratty right before the full moon and then that night…well he told me he just gets horny as hell!" He told them guffawing along with them. And it felt good to laugh. It had been too long since Charlie had felt like laughing properly. The others laughed along with him until tears leaked from their eyes.

"Another round?" He asked, standing from his seat and motioning with his empty glass to the surrounding table. He was replied with a bunch of unintelligible mumbles.

Charlie made his way to the bar, empty glasses in his hands, as many as he could hold and placed them down on the bar. He was stood next to a group of girls who were chatting animatedly and one of them was checking him out as far as he could tell.

"Another round?" Came a voice, and Charlie looked back over the bar to be met with a face half hidden behind the beer pumps. He grinned down at the small woman.

"Please." He replied, watching as kicked and pushed a large box across the floor with her foot as she asked him what the order was. "Shouldn't you remember this sort of thing?" He asked with a smirk.

"If you hadn't noticed." She started at him, clearing the empty glasses from in front of him and depositing them onto another side where they were suddenly taken by another pair of hands. "We're rather busy." She told him, walking back to the bar and leaning her elbow against the sticky wood with a sickly sweet smile upon her lips. "Well?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"Three pints of the original, two glasses of the white and I'll have a double Irish whiskey." She lost the sickly smile and gave a genuine one and began preparing the order. Charlie watched as she busily prepared the glasses and drinks, lining them up before him until they were all poured and served in front of him.

"£16.70" She told him quickly while tightening her hastily put up hair.

"Right." Charlie murmured digging out his wallet and shifting through the money in there, attempting to hide from view the wizard money he had in there, while attempting to fish out the bit of muggle money he kept at the bottom.

"Struggling?" She called across the bar at him, making sure to be heard over the raucous of a busy Saturday night in the middle of summer.

"Yeah see, I work abroad…haven't been home in a while. Help me out would ya?" He asked, leaning onto the bar and offering the wallet toward here, hoping that she really wouldn't think anything of the foreign looking money.

While she took the wallet in her hand and began fishing for pounds and pennies Charlie got to really look at the girl. She had dark brown hair, piled on top of her head, little make up on, hoops in her ears and a piercing in her nose, brown eyes that were shifting over both his wallet and himself, so he thought. Her skin was sun kissed and had a light dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks, as though she'd recently been in the sun. She was very pretty in Charlie's opinion, perhaps a tad short but he could definitely work with that.

"Right." She told him handing the wallet back and taking a fist full of money to the till, she rang it through and headed back over with a fist of change.

"Please keep it. You've been plenty kind to me this evening." He told her and watched as she smiled and placed the money into the pinny around her waist.

"Thank you very much." She said and he watched as a grin grew upon her face and her cheeks flushed ever so slightly.

 _P.S If anyone has any ideas/feedback they'd like to put forth feel free! I appreciate all the help I can get...and I'm sure that I will get very lost in this mad world._


	3. Drunken Disapparating

_Hope you all enjoy the update, I know that there's not a lot going on but I feel like I need to set the scene and their characters up. It'll all start rolling a lot faster soon, I promise. Also I realise I never mentioned it but, obviously all credit to JK Rowling!_

Charlie's night turned out to be one that he couldn't really remember, just hazy conversation. Himself and his group of friends continued drinking till 2.00am and wobbled their ways out onto the cooling streets of muggle London, leaving only one other group on the premises.

"Hey!" Called a voice, and Charlie turned around, his eyes taking a moment to catch up with his too fast movement. He saw the bar girl half running toward him, a jacket in her hand. "You left this behind." She told him with a knowing smile, handing the black leather looking jacket over to him. Charlie took the jacket and leaned down slightly so he could look directly into her eyes.

"Thank you." He told her, meeting her dark eyes that looked slightly sleepy at that moment. She grinned at him and told him "no problem enjoy your night." Or Charlie presumed that's what she was going to say as she was cut off as he leant in to press his lips sloppily onto her soft cheek. The girl was frozen in shock and Charlie watched as her cheeks filled with a pink colour and mouth flopped open and closed a couple of times with no noise coming out.

"Sorry." He told her grinning all the while giving her a shrug and turned to his friends who were falling about in the middle of the street laughing at the awkward and unexpected exchange. Once he'd reached them and they had set off down the street, the others still laughing as he turned and looked back over his shoulder, before turning the corner, to see the girl, hand held to the cheek where his lips had just been and a small smile on her lips watching them leave.

"What _was_ that?" Maria asked as they rounded the corner, laughing all the while.

"Dunno." Charlie answered with a shrug and a smug smile on his lips.

"You know you could get done for that kind of shit right mate?" David asked punching his arm as they swaggered down the streets, heading to the apparition point outside of The Leaky Cauldron.

"I know! I just…she was pretty." Charlie announced throwing an arm around Thea and Joe and nudging his way in between the couple.

"Come on. Lets get you idiots home." Thea told the group, steering them down the alley beside The Leaky Cauldron before pulling her wand from her bag and looking around at the surrounding faces with a sad smile.

"Can we meet again soon?" She asked quietly, taking Joe's hand in her own.

"Yes!" Maria squealed out quickly wrapping her arms around David and Joe and began chanting "Group hug, group hug." And with a few groans they pulled together, arms wrapped around each other, all grinning at the old tradition they had taken part in every time they left for summer away from Hogwarts.

"Love you guys." Michael muttered to which he received the same statement made back to him five times.

They pulled apart and Joe took Thea's hand once more before disapparating away. Next was Maria, then David, leaving Michael and Charlie to drunkenly grin at one another as Charlie pulled is wand from his back pocket, raising it in preparation to disaparate.

"Hey Charlie, you know…if you want to just chat…or go out and get blindingly drunk, we're here for you." He told him lifting a hand and resting it on Charlie's muscled shoulder.

Charlie felt the smile pull his lips and his breath catch somewhat in his throat. They hadn't really discussed anything to do with the deaths, other than Tonks, although Tonks had always been close with all of them.

"I know bud." He told him, "thanks." And with that they pulled away giving one another a smile then turned into nothingness.

 _Please review! x_


	4. The Burrow

_A speedy update, I'm on a bit of a roll and seeing as how the last chapter was pretty sort I thought I'd update today! Enjoy._

Charlie arrived just down the lane from The Burrow, stumbling slightly on his landing and leant against he dry stone wall while his waited out the spinning of the world. As soon as he felt steady he straightened up and shoved his arms through his jacket while he began the short walk to the gate to his childhood home. It stood in the out against the slowly lightening sky, some windows were lit up which confused Charlie, he checked his watch and sure enough it was 3.00am, a time when the inhabitants of The Burrow should be sleeping soundly. From a glance he saw that the kitchen was lit up, Percy's room too and Ron's all the way at the top of the house. He made his way to the door and pulled his wand out to unlock it silently, yet as soon as he had opened the door he could hear voices floating around the house. He closed the door and headed straight through to the living room where his mum was sat in an armchair knitting and chatting to Hermione who was curled on the sofa, nursing a cup of tea that steamed her sleepy face.

"Charlie." Molly broke off from the quiet conversation she'd been having with Hermione and smiled at him.

"Why are you two up?" Charlie asked, taking his jacket off and slinging it onto the back of a nearby chair before falling back into its squishy folds.

"Nightmares." They answered simultaneously, smiling at one another in camaraderie.

Charlie barked out a laugh at the sentiment, _what a strange thing to bond over_ , he thought. With a sigh, he kicked his shoes off and watched as his mother glared at the dragon hide boots.

"I'll take them upstairs when I go up." He promised before she could voice her annoyance. "So…what are the nightmares?"

Hermione lowered her eyes to her tea keeping her lips sealed and his mother glared at him. "We will not be discussing that Charlie!" She told him in a quiet stern voice.

"Alright, alright." He said raising his hands in defence.

"Where have you been?" Molly asked quickly, changing the subject from whatever haunted the two women.

"London, we went to a muggle pub," At this Molly looked at him quizzically. "We didn't want to have to deal with the crowds…" Charlie told her and she nodded knowingly, as did Hermione. They both understood that with the end of the war, the streets bustled in Diagon Alley full of admirers and well wishers. "It was great though! No one disturbed us and it's been so long since I'd seen the gang." He told the room in general.

"How are they all?" Molly asked, genuinely intrigued, having had them over many times during Charlie's childhood.

"Fine, fine. Joe and Thea got married last year." At this his Mother awed and wished them well. "Yep and Michael got a promotion, David is still at The Daily Prophet writing and Maria _still_ in training to be a healer."

"Still? My word it takes a lot of years!" She commented. "She's a lovely girl Maria." Molly mentioned looking at Charlie shrewdly.

"Mum, you know that _th_ at will never happen. I've been telling you for years."

"Who is she?" Hermione piped in, in an attempt to cut Molly off on her tirade of Charlie's eligibility and her lack of grandchildren.

Charlie quickly grinned at her "You've actually met her before." He told her, giving her a moment to think it over.

"I have?" She asked while taking a sip of tea and pushing her hair away from her face.

"You have. A fair few years ago now though. That dragon of Hagrids? Norberta? She was one of them who brought her over on their broomsticks." He told her with a grin and noticed how pale she had suddenly become. He quickly looked to his mother who had frozen in her knitting, her face a mask of disbelief.

"Dragon?" She whispered and Charlie suddenly very much regretted bringing up the subject. "A dragon?!" She shrieked.

"Mum!" Charlie shouted back standing from his seat and wobbling slightly, he was definitely still drunk, he wouldn't have mentioned the dragon with his mother present if he hadn't been. "Listen…it was only a baby dragon and the kids were only helping Hagrid!" He told her as she placed the knitting needles down on the arm of the chair and pulled herself upright.

"They shouldn't be going near dragons Charlie!" She said quietly walking towards him all the while he backed away with every step of hers.

"I didn't tell them to _get_ the dragon!"

"Yes but you didn't tell them not to!"

"I'm not in charge of them!" He told her rushing around to the other side of the kitchen table.

"No! Apparently you only care about the bloody dragons Charlie! Honestly! How could you ask _children_ to handle a dragon?" She was shouting now and Charlie made sure that the table was between them all the while. He could also hear footsteps and doors opening above and was somewhat thankful at the idea of having someone to stop his maniac mother.

"I never said they handled a dragon. They just carried him across school and gave them to the gang who flew to Romania so I could look after her on the reserve." During his explanation Hermione had come to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and living room while Arthur had come down the stairs pulling on a dressing gown quickly followed by Bill, Ginny and George.

"What the hells going on?" Bill asked scratching his head his eyes bleary. "Seriously? Mum, it's 3 in the morning!" He cried out.

"Bill do not swear!" She told him.

"Hell is not a swear word mum." He answered back.

"Molly come on dear, it's far too late for all this." Arthur chimed in.

"Yeah mum, listen to dad." Charlie told her, although he suddenly wished he'd stayed quiet as her eyes narrowed in on him once more.

"I'm going back to bed." George announced and squeezed his way back up the stairs between bodies.

"Yes, we should all be in bed." Arthur called out.

"What's all the noise?" Came another voice along with thumping steps down the stairs.

"Oh well done Charlie. You've woken Ron and most likely Harry too."

"Are they the only ones you care about waking?" Ginny called out, wrapping her arms about herself with a huff as Ron appeared at the top of the stairs.

"What's happened" He asked, eyes scanning the room quickly, taking care to rest on Hermione for longer than anyone else. Charlie noted the wand in his hand and suddenly wondered how long it would take them to get out of their 'on the run' minds.

"Now, now." Molly had softened at the appearance of Ron. "Off to bed with you all. I'm sorry Ron we didn't mean to wake you. Is Harry still asleep?" She asked worriedly.

"Um, no we've been up for a bit…nightmares again." He told everyone, looking down at his bare feet.

Charlie watched as Molly's shoulders slumped and nodded.

"It'll take time." She announced and then suddenly looked about herself.

"Bed, come on everyone to bed. It's far too late for this kind of gathering!" She sounded like her old self one more. She began shooing everyone back upstairs and climbed up after Arthur. Charlie followed with Hermione just behind him. "Sorry Charlie." Hermione told him, before following Ginny into her room and closing the door. Charlie climbed another flight of stairs behind his mum and dad and opened his door, calling out "goodnight" as loud as he could before quickly shutting the door. _It's good to be home_ , Charlie thought.


	5. Passing

_I'm so sorry for the huge gap in updates, christmas and assignments kind of took over unfortunately! I hope you understand and enjoy x_

Charlie had left Romania with no warning. No warning to his fellow dragon keepers nor his superiors and the next morning awoke to an incessant tapping at his window. He groaned, pulling back his covers and stumbling to the window and letting in the owl, which held 3 envelopes in its mouth. Charlie groaned and fell back onto the bed, recognising the handwriting of the letters. He ripped them open and was faced with declarations of shock and worry, two from fellow keepers and one from his supervisor who had known of the precarious state that Charlie was in, being so far from his family when so much was happening. His supervisor questioned what was happening and whether he'd be returning. Charlie couldn't even think about returning right now. It was all too raw. The deaths, the loss, and he knew that his family couldn't be apart right now.

Standing from his bed and sitting at his old school desk Charlie began writing a reply.

Dear Steve,

Sorry for not writing sooner. I'm guessing you've heard the news of Voldemort's fall. But perhaps you haven't heard that we lost a brother during the war. It's a hard time right now and I won't be returning to Romania for a while. I think it's best I stay home for now. It has been too long since I've been home for longer than a week. I hope you understand and please do stay in touch, keep me updated with the goings on.

Charlie.

He attached the letter back onto the owls leg and watched as he quickly set off out the window into the glorious summer morning. Charlie could feel the brewing of a headache, most likely due to the excessive alcohol consumed the night before, and decided that he'd raid the cupboards for a hangover cure. Grabbing an old jumper from his drawers Charlie pulled it over his bare chest and made his way downstairs to find his mother already up and cooking breakfast, with Bill, his dad, Harry and Ginny sat around the table.

"Morning." Charlie announced his arrival at the occupants of the table and dropped down into the chair beside Bill who held the Daily Prophet in his hands. He received half-hearted "mornings" in return.

"Everyone seems chipper this morning." He told them, meeting Harry's eyes across the table, which were darkly ringed.

"Well seeing as how you decided to argue with your mother at 3 o'clock in the morning, we didn't all have the greatest nights sleep." Arthur told him, raising his eyebrows.

"Alright, alright. I know. I'm sorry."

"You should be." Bill muttered to him. "Fleur's being real pissy this morning. And I blame you."

"Uh, no you don't! If your wife's in a bad mood it is in no way my fault." Charlie told him while elbowing the Bills arm. Bill turned to glare at him but Charlie just grinned.

"You two still act as though you're boys." Molly announced as she began placing pots and pans onto the table, filled with eggs and sausages, bacon and beans.

"Ooh, mum this looks brilliant." Ginny told her grabbing food from every plate possible.

"Hungry Gin?" Charlie questioned. "Any particular reason for that?" He asked looking Harry dead in the eyes.

"No Charlie. And don't be a dick." Ginny told him flicking a bean across the table in his general direction.

"Ginerva, language." Arthur told her half heartedly while making Molly sit down next to him and plated them some breakfast up.

"Yes language Ginerva." Bill told her over the top of the newspaper.

Charlie watched as she stuck her tongue out and then scooted closer to Harry who looked exceedingly small in his seat.

The days passed in a slow, lethargic fashion, as they had done ever since the funeral. Everyone took the days slow, Fleur and Bill disappeared for a good portion of the day, walking into the village and around the surrounding fields of the burrow, Charlie found himself taking part in multiple games of chess between Percy and Ron, in between attempting to write back to the letters he and the family had received alongside his mother. Percy and Hermione flitted between multiple books that were lying around the rooms and Charlie watched Ron as he floated around wherever Hermione was stood, almost like a gravity pull. He found that he couldn't really keep his eyes from them as they watched for each other constantly and leaned into one another whenever they were close enough. Charlie couldn't quite get his head around the fact that his little brother had suddenly become a man; a man in love. Watching the two, made Charlie begin thinking of his own love life…pretty non-existent in terms of long standing relationships. There had been women…multiple women that knew where he stood. He didn't want a relationship, didn't feel the pull of settling down. His job was his passion and it was pretty much all consuming, the dragons became his relationship. But within the burrow, he suddenly found himself almost completely surrounded by couples.

His mum and dad had always been an inspiration to him, forever standing beside one another through thick and thin, doing whatever the other could not do. They were what he always someday hoped for, although having never been settled in one place for more than a month since leaving school meant that any relationship would turn to be long distance. And he just hadn't been ready. But suddenly, finding himself in this house surrounded by people who had someone who loved them unconditionally and passionately made him feel very alone. Not in a physical sense, Charlie didn't believe he could ever feel physically alone here at the burrow, but emotionally he had no one.

It was another one of those lonely days later in July that sent Charlie to London. George had begun disappearing for lengths of time during the day and Charlie and the rest of the family believed he was spending the time back in the shop, perhaps attempting to reopen it or just mourning on his own instead. Charlie decided he'd take his time making his way over there, if it were the latter he obviously didn't want to rush into his grief too soon. And so Charlie found himself wandering around muggle London, it was a beautiful day, blue skies with the sun beating down on the black tarmac filling the busy streets with a warmth that Charlie didn't feel he had actually felt in weeks. He wasn't really making his way anywhere in particular, just attempting to stray further from the entrance to Diagon Alley to stop himself from disturbing George too soon. He didn't really know how to deal with his brothers grief, not even his own really.

"Hey" A voice called out loudly from his right as he walked down the bustling street. He looked and there stood a short woman with a tray held in her hand, empty glasses filling its surface as she watched him and pointed her finger toward him. "you!" She called out, placing the empty tray of glasses down onto an empty table that was on the street. There were people sat at the other tables outside, turning to stare awkwardly at the girl shouting in the street. She strode quickly towards him, dodging the busy people on the streets and backing Charlie into the railing against the road. Charlie raised his hands in defence, almost wanting to reach for his wand but stopped when he looked at her face. She had the funniest expression on her face, her eyes were fierce but there was a stupid grin on her lips.

"You're that guy that kissed me!" She told him prodding him in the chest and laughing slightly before taking a step away and folding her arms across her chest.

"Yes well…I mean…I am sorry about that…" Charlie felt his ears heat up and looked away from her staring eyes.

"You were pissed as a fart so I'll think about letting you off."

"I know. I'm sorry. I don't really know why I did it…" He was stumbling over his words and he couldn't work out why.

"It's fine, honestly. I've had worse." She said with a wink.

"Oh god. I hope I don't count as a letch?" Charlie asked.

"Well you don't have to." She told him before turning away and heading back into the restaurant, grabbing the tray of drinks as she did.


	6. Damn Statute of Secrecy

_So, I just noticed that the chapter was completely messed up on here, not sure why it did that but here it is re-uploaded. New chapter coming soon!_

Charlie watched as she turned away from him and made her way back to the restaurant and the tables she had left. He watched as her hips swung with a natural sway away from him and he scratched his head in complete and utter confusion. He didn't know this girl. She didn't know him. What the hell was going on here? Yet it felt like she was flirting with him. Charlie grinned and made his way to the entrance to the restaurant and was met by her smiling face.

"I'm going to get more salad leaves from the shop." She told him as she shrugged a bag onto her shoulder and slid past him in the doorway. "You want to walk me?" She asked quickly, looking at her feet suddenly but not before Charlie noticed a faint redness to her cheeks.

"Sure." Charlie told her and moved out of the doorway and began following her down the street. "So…" Charlie began and left his sentence hanging in the air.

"This is weird isn't it?" She asked.

"Well yeah…I mean I don't even know your name." Charlie suddenly realised looking down at her. She was a lot shorter than he realised, her dark hair was up and shining in the sunlight.

"Oh my god!" She laughed and looked up at him, having to shade her eyes from the sun. "Right." She stopped still in the middle of the busy street and held her hand out to him. "I'm Rosalyn." She told him with a grin on her face.

"Charlie." He told her and grasped her small hand in his own, noting the softness of her skin against his charred, burnt fingers. Pulling away Rosalyn moved onwards with a sly look over her shoulder and watched as he lifted his hand to the back of his neck before following on.

"So Charlie…what do you do?" She asked as they continued down the sunny streets of London.

Charlie almost pulled up short as he suddenly remembered that he couldn't tell this complete stranger, a muggle at that, that he was a Dragonologist. He'd be breaking the Statute of Secrecy and never mind that, he hardly knew the girl. He just felt comfortable around her. He'd somehow let his guard down around this muggle girl without even realising it. He couldn't really believe it; intimacy, not physical or anything like that, but real deep, emotional intimacy was something Charlie had really struggled to get over. It had been the cause for many broken hearts, not on his part though, he'd become resigned to the fact that perhaps he just wasn't supposed to fall in love.

"Charlie?" Her voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh…sorry, I'm a-a…animals conservationist." Charlie was quite proud that he'd thought that up on the spot. It was pretty ingenious…nothing too specific.

"Wow…so what do you do? Like looking out for certain animals?"

Charlie was lost now. He didn't want to spin himself a web of lies that he'd most likely end up tangled in, so he decided to stick as close to the truth as possible.

"Yeah, I worked in Romania for a few years working with the…er native creatures."

"Really? That's amazing!" She told him before grabbing his sleeve and dragging him into a shop before grabbing a basket from the floor and continuing through the shelves. "So what kind's of creatures are they?" She asked, not looking him in the eye, but scanning the shelves.

Charlie hadn't realised how hard it would be to hide this kind of thing…how inquisitive were muggles these days? Apparently very inquisitive.

"You know big ones. Ones that leave scars." He told her and quickly lifted his arm to show her the many burns and scars that ran up his arm. She stopped still and took it in. Charlie watched her eyes flicker along the odd, twisting paths up and up his arm until a sleeve obstructed the rest of the view.

"Jesus." She said softly before meeting his gaze. Her eyes were a soft, honeyed brown in the daylight he noted. "So like bears and stuff?" She asked, moving further into the shop.

"Yeah….bears and stuff." He told her, rubbing his hand over his burnt arm.

Charlie followed Rosalyn around the shop, making small, light conversation as they did. He found out that was a university student in Bath, but had originally come from somewhere up North near Leeds, which was where her parents were at, however the reason she was in London was because she had an internship with a company. To Charlie it all sounded like far too much.

"Don't you just feel totally lost?" He asked as they made their way back out onto the busy London street.

"Well, yeah. I mean I've got bits of myself planted all over the country and I lose track of what I've got where. It _is_ confusing at times. But got to keep at it." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"So why are you working in the pub then, on top of everything else?"

"Well, got to live somehow don't I?" She said with a grin.

"True enough." Charlie agreed and grinned back at her. They continued walking in this fashion asking little questions about careers and what they wanted to do and where they wanted to be. But when it came to Charlie's turn once more he found that he really wasn't sure what lay ahead for himself.

"Well, I left Romania behind for now." He didn't want to get into the intricacies of his family with the poor girl right now, so he avoided any reason why. "But I'm not sure what to do. I'm back home at the minute and do you know what? It's really quite nice. I think I'm just going to enjoy the summer and see what opportunities come about after that." He liked this idea, and he was sure his mum would too. She'd definitely enjoy having everyone nearby.

"Sounds nice." She told him with a smile. Then she stopped and grabbed the arm of Charlie's shirt and pulled him into a little side alley to avoid the traffic of people flowing down the street. "Listen, we're just around the corner from the pub and I've already been too long gone. So do you have a number or something?" She asked and Charlie watched, amusedly, as her skin turned blotchy and red and she dropped her gaze from his to the ground. Charlie didn't know what to think. He'd known this girl all of an hour if he counted all the time they'd spent together into one block. He didn't know her. She was a muggle. A pretty muggle.

 _Fuck it_ , was Charlie's only thought. "I don't actually know my number." He told her and she looked away with a sigh. "No, like I honest to god don't know it. But you could give me yours? And I'll call?" He leant down a little so he could meet her gaze and show her the grin, and matching cheek colour.

"Sure." She said and reached into her bag, pulling out a pen and taking his hand in her own. Again he marvelled at her soft skin and noted how small her hands were in comparison to his own. Tiny and delicate where his were burnt and rough and big. He watched as she scribbled small number onto the back of his hand and wrote the word "Ros" underneath. He gave her a questioning look.

"Just in case you forget." She told him, letting go of his hand and tucking some hair that had fallen from its place behind her ear.

"I won't forget." Charlie promised and quickly leant in and pressed his lips to her cheek once more before giving her one last grin and manoeuvring out into the busy London street and heading in the general direction of The Leaky Cauldron. However he wasn't really paying attention, all he could think was, _She smelt lovely_.


	7. Worth the Trouble

_Another chapter for you lovely readers! Enjoy x_

Charlie eventually found his way to The Leaky Cauldron, through the dingy pub and out the back into Diagon Alley. He hadn't stopped grinning since he'd left Ros in that little alley back in muggle London and even as he knocked on the door to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. George came running to the door and unlocked it with a confused look on his face.

"What the hells up with you?" He asked as he let Charlie in and relocked the door behind him.

"Nothing, nothing." Charlie lied and quickly rid himself of the grin.

"That smile wasn't nothing. Did you finally have a shag back on home turf?" He asked nudging Charlie and waved him through the shop and into a back room, where boxes lay in various states and cauldron was bubbling. Charlie watched as George quickly made his way over to it and began stirring this way and that.

"Not at all…" Charlie denied quickly. Realistically it wasn't a shag, but it could be. "What are _you_ doing?" He asked, pointing toward the bubbling orange potion.

"Well, Freddie and me worked so hard on opening up this fucking shop, can't let it go to waste now can I?…also it's nice to be busy…keeps my mind off it." He told Charlie while adding something that looked a dodgy shade of brown into the potion.

Charlie nodded, "I have to admit, I didn't know what I was turning up to. I really didn't expect this though. I thought the shop had been destroyed?"

"Yeah well when I came back the other day, Lee, Verity and Angelina were here already cleaning up. It was really sweet of them." He said with a small smile, ruffling his hair and stepping away from the now simmering potion. "That's just got to be left overnight now. I really don't want it to go wrong again." He told Charlie and pointed to a burnt patch in the corner of the room where a half melted cauldron lay on its side.

"Well as long as you're not doing anything too dangerous?" Charlie said and slapped his brother on the back as they climbed the stairs to reach the Twins flat. Charlie had never been to the flat. Now he thought about it, he really had missed a lot over the last few years, what with work and the Order of the Phoenix work Dumbledore had him doing out in Romania. Not that he hadn't appreciated being able to help out in whatever way he could; he just really wished he'd been able to come home. He was sure that if he'd asked, Dumbledore would have allowed him home but there were jobs to do in Romania that only he could do. So he'd stayed but as a result hadn't been able to come home as often as he should have done, or as much as he know wished he had.

"Charlie? I said do you want a tea?" George asked from the other room. Charlie broke out of his thoughts coming back to present to see a clean and tidy flat before him. It seemed small, with a small living room and a kitchen around the corner, a small hallway with three doors leading off from it.

"Looks nice." Charlie said stepping into the house, kicking his shoes off as George had.

It was light and bright and had photographs on most available surfaces as well as the walls. Charlie walked around noticing many of the family on holidays in Scotland with Dads family as well as many taken at Hogwarts, the twins alongside various and many friends.

"Here." George said making Charlie jump to face him.

"It looks really good George. You've really done a great job." Charlie told him taking the tea and following him over to the sofa.

"Well, again that's with the help of Angelina and Lee." He said while walking to a sofa and dropping his lanky frame into the squashy chair.

Charlie followed suit and took a seat on the chair opposite. "So Angelina's been spending quite a bit of time here then?" He asked, nursing his tea not looking in George's eyes.

Charlie watched as George shook his head and grinned from the corner of his eye. "Well, if you must know you nosey git, yes she has. Been spending a couple of nights over here too." He said with a smug expression.

"Well, well, well little brother." Charlie exclaimed and raised his mug of tea in a mock cheers.

"I think she's made a real difference, helped me you know. Helped with everything…" He replied trailing off. Charlie looked at him and noticed the red tinge to the tops of his ears.

"Well…I'm glad you've got someone Georgie."

"And what about you?" George asked in reply.

"What about me?" Charlie asked innocently.

"You know! I mean are there any ladies on home turf? Cause that goofy look on your face when you arrived spoke a thousand words." George noted giving him a poignant look over his tea.

"Well…I mean I've met someone-"

"Hah! I knew it!" George cried almost spilling his tea whilst sitting up straight.

"Yeah… _met_ " Charlie emphasized. "I don't know. I haven't even told anyone about this and I barely know her at all."

"Well you need to change that quickly don't you." George said with a waggle of his brows. "What's her name?"

"Ros." Charlie replied. "You won't know her."

"Ur, I probably do. I knew most people at Hogwarts…unless she's an older woman? No, not your style at all. You like them young and supple. Not too young though…hmm oh not Rosalind Brooks? The Slytherin? Please not her, I mean she might be nice but she's got the face of a cows arse." He stopped his rambling to look at Charlie who was attempting to hide his laughter behind his mug.

"Wrong mate. She's…well she's a muggle." He announced finally and watched George's reaction closely. At first it was confused, as though he couldn't really work it out. And then he smiled.

"Well, well, well…Dad'll be so pleased." He said at once and began laughing heartily.

"Yeah I know. I'm terrified to mention it to him. But yeah, please don't mention it to anyone yeah? I have literally never really actually been with her for more than half an hour."

"Jeesh, no worries Charlie. She _must_ be pretty to have you all wrapped up already…"

"She is pretty! I don't know what it is…I'm a little hooked already." Charlie announced grinning and thinking of her face.

"Now this is a first Charlie boy. So how'd you meet this girl then?" He asked.

"When we went to the pub last week, me and Michael, David and them lot. We went to a muggle pub to avoid the madness. She was a waitress and we didn't really speak much but I don't know." Charlie ended with a shrug.

"Interesting…and you obviously saw her today? I mean that look on your face said as much."

"Yeah, just a chance meeting. We chatted a lot more. But I'll tell you something, it's hard to hide it all. The magic and shit, I mean I kept a lot from her, didn't mention the family, I thought that might be a little too much for her at this stage. And had to hide my job."

George laughed. "Yeah nevermind the magic I think if you mentioned the fact that you have 5 – I mean 4 brothers and a sister is a little scary, magic seems somewhat understated." He dissolved into laughter at this and Charlie joined him at his own stupidity. It wasn't really the weirdest thing about him really. "IS she worth all the trouble then?" He asked seriously.

"Yeah…I think she is." Charlie replied softly before gulping down the last of his tea.


	8. Couples in the Burrow

_Sorry for the wait. Dissertation is in full swing here. Hope you enjoy. And I promise that the next chapter will hold Ros and Charlie once more. x_

Charlie, having spent the majority of the day and evening in the flat with George finally made his way back to the Burrow at 9.00pm. It was dark, but the night sky was clear with a clear moon and a spattering of stars that he watched as walked up the path to the front door. In the kitchen his mum was placing a few pots and pans away with the help of Ginny while everyone else was seated still around the table. They all looked toward the door at his entrance.

"Oh Charlie, you missed tea!" Molly announced at his appearance and began plating up a bowl of stew for him as he kicked off his shoes and sat in the seat next to Harry that had obviously just been vacated by Ginny. He knew this because he saw the small glare his little sister sent in his direction.

"So what have I missed?" He asked the room at large looking around. Everyone was there, except George of course.

"Well…" Bill answered "Me and Fleur are heading back to Shell Cottage in the morning. It's getting a little too cramped here and I think it' best if we start trying to get back into a semi normal routine." Charlie watched as his older brother placed an arm around Fleur's waist and she leant heavily into him.

"Yes, we would like to get out of everyone's 'air" Fleur said softly with a smile up at her heavily scarred husband.

"Mmm, I bed you do." Charlie said around a spoonful of stew.

"Charles eat properly." Molly scolded.

"Sorry."

"Well Bill as we were saying, you know you don't have to go." Arthur countered. "I mean it's not so cramped?" It sounded like a question as he looked around the room at the many figures, perched and balanced precariously on the chairs and stools around the table. At the looks of concern Arthur turned his attention quickly to Charlie. "How was George doing? Is he ok?"

Charlie felt the entire table staring at him intently. He swallowed the last bite of his stew before telling the table.

"He seemed really good. Honestly. He had a bit of colour in his cheeks. And the shop and flat were clean. Although both of those have thanks in large part to a certain witch I do believe." He said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "When I got there he was busy making some concoction or another and he seemed chirpy. Well, as chirpy as can be."

"But…who's the girl? Who's been over there?" Molly asked concerned.

"Angelina." Charlie said and everyone grinned at the latest news.

"Of course it was Angelina." Ginny noted moving around the table and trying to wedge herself in between Charlie and Harry. Charlie didn't move and elbowed his little sister in the side so that she stopped. She gave him a pinch of the arm as a telling off.

"Oh Angelina, such a darling. We should invite her over for tea?" Molly quickly decided.

"Mum don't you think George would want to announce his new relationship in his own time? Not have this git spurting it out in front of everyone? He'll tell us in his own time." Bill said trying to calm his mother in motion.

"Silly of me. Of course Bill. Oh you're such a good boy, thinking of your brother."

"Such a good boy" A number of red headed voices chorused in mocking tones from around the table, to which laughter ensued.

Charlie watched a blush catch the tips of Bills ears as he buried his head into Fleur's petite body and she wrapped her arms about his head, kissing the top and whispering softly into his red hair. Charlie suddenly felt very lonely once more.

A small cough fluttered from the other end of the table quietly, in the small dip in conversation. "Well, I do have something that I wanted to share with everyone here." Hermione piped up, her voice soft and perhaps a little nervous as she stood from her seat awkwardly.

"What is it dear?" Molly asked.

"I-well what I mean to say is that, I am going to be leaving for Australia at the end of the week." She told the room, not looking anyone in the eye, staring fixedly at her knotted fingers that lay on the table-top and not at the forlorn gaze that Ron was giving her.

"What?" Ginny half shouted, causing both Harry and Charlie to cover their ears as she stood over the two of them.

Charlie looked at Harry and saw an understanding look on his face as he looked at Hermione, she had obviously already discussed this with both Ron and Harry.

"Whatever for my dear?" Molly asked quickly, a worried look on her face and panic in her voice.

"Well you see, the summer before last…before we went on the Horcrux hunt I decided that it wasn't safe for me to leave my parents behind, unprotected and a little in the dark of everything that was going on in our world so I placed a memory charm on them and sent them to Australia. They'd always wanted to go and with them half way across the world I knew it would make it harder for them to be found. They have different names and no recollection of myself or anything to do with this world or life." She choked a little and Ron caught her hand that lay on the table. "I've been in contact with Kingsley over the past week and he has set up a portkey for me and has got me in touch with the ministry in Australia and they have found them. Happy and healthy. Just not my parents at the moment, but that's why I am going out there, to bring them home and back to themselves." She told them determinedly, clinging onto Ron's hand, as though he was physically supporting her.

"Hermione, of course we wish you'd told us all of this. We could have helped perhaps." Arthur said softly.

"I know, I know. Its just that this whole family has done so much for me already that I didn't want to burden you anymore-"

But she was cut off by multiple voices around the table voicing opinions that all relatively meant _You're no burden. You're family._

She smiled tentatively and blushed furiously, leaning closer into Ron as he whispered in her ear.

"You aren't planning on going by yourself are you Hermione?" Molly asked giving the pair a sly smile.

"I am-"

Once more she was cut off, but this time by Ron who stood up from his seat too. "No she's not. I'll be going with her." He announced proudly.

Charlie watched his mum and dad smile in unison at their youngest son, loyal and brave as ever.

"Good." Was all molly said on the subject, although if you were watching her you could see the tears in her eyes as she stood to head towards the living room, picking up her knitting needles and taking a seat in one of the many squashy armchairs. The rest of the table followed her lead, disappearing into the living room or making their way upstairs to bedrooms.

Charlie watched as Ron and Hermione quickly darted upstairs, both flushing red and whispering as they went.

"Well…he's all grown up now isn't he?" Bill commented patting Charlie on the back and watching the young couple disappear.

"He is." Charlie noted, the couple seemed to be so close and beyond what so many young couples felt. "Which is _slightly_ concerning seeing as how Harry over there, is most likely doing the same thing with our sister." He stated looking into the living room and watching the other young couple, sat opposite one another at the old chessboard on the floor.

"Mmm, I know. Not something to dwell on too much." Bill noted, quickly looking away and back to the back door where Fleur was stood, breathing in the night air.

"You don't seem to be dwelling on anything much other than that blond of yours." Charlie said with an elbow to his big brothers ribs.

"Can't help it mate. I honestly can't." Bill's voice was far away and most definitely not present.

"Stop thinking about all the nasty things you can do to your wife for a moment would you? I-I need a hand." Charlie said, lowering his tone.

"What?"

Charlie motioned his head toward the pantry and the pair quickly walked into the large cupboard full of homey smells.

"Ok, so there's a girl." Charlie stated quickly.

"Ooh, who's the lucky witch?" Bill asked with a grin.

"No, not a witch Bill…"

"Wizard?" Bill asked hopefully.

"No Bill…"

"A muggle?"

"Yup." Charlie announced with a sigh and leant back against one of the shelf-lined walls.

"Merlin's beard Charlie. Do you know how much trouble you can get into if you don't do this properly? A fine and everything." He told him seriously.

"Well, it's not anything right now. Honestly. I haven't even taken her out for a proper date or anything yet. I just…I wanted a hand in how I should be playing this."

"I'm not exactly an expert in the field Charlie." Bill told him seriously, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, well no one else is in this family either so what the hell should I be doing?"

"Calm down. It's fine, I swear on Merlin's grave that I won't tell. You don't need Mum sniffing around this. She's been _dying_ to set you up ever since the wedding. She thinks that little Mary Lamb would be excellent for you." Bill told him with a sneer.

"Mary Lamb? Who does she think I am?" Charlie asked shocked.

"That's what I asked. She thinks she's "just lovely"." Bills imitation of their mother had Charlie roaring with laughter.

"Anyway, I've got to ring this girl. Obviously not right now…I mean it's probably quite late to ring. Isn't it? I don't know how these things really work."

"What the temelephone?" Bill asked. " Don't ask me that either, I'm useless with muggle contraptions. Maybe you should ask Dad…or Hermione! She'll know for real! And there's no risking Mum finding out cause you know Dad can't keep a secret from her."

"Right! Hermione, I'll ask her tomorrow I think. Seems like they were going to be busy this evening." Charlie said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Mmm, speaking of getting busy." Bill said with an evil grin that stretched some of his scars wickedly. "Mon Cherie!" He shouted in a sign song voice that sounded very un-French.

Charlie followed his older brother out from the pantry to see him chasing her out the back door and out into the meadow while she screamed and shouted, "Non Bill! I told you! Not in your muzzers 'ouse!"

"But mon Cherie, we are _outside_!"

Charlie chuckled and made his way into the living room where Percy sat beside their mother, a book in his hand and knitting needles in hers. His dad was half asleep in his chair and Harry and Ginny were sat on one side of the chessboard, she in his lap as they laughed softly with one another. Charlie glared at the pair but moved out of the living room to ascend the stairs to his room. They couldn't get up to anything too particular with both parents on guard. Ginny, after all was the baby. There was no getting around the fact that she was highly protected in the house.

Charlie walked into his room, almost exactly as he'd left it before leaving for Romania. Although some of his riskier posters had been taken down, probably burnt by his mother if he thought about it honestly. He dropped down heavily onto his bed and began thinking over where he was going to ask Ros to go. Where would he take a muggle girl? Without using magic? Without any kind of magic involved?

It was a hard thing to think about, seeing as how he'd grown up with magic always being in his life. Never really having to hide it unless they ventured into the village or muggle London, though they had always been rare occasions.

But Charlie couldn't help but think about her. He couldn't really hide how he was feeling from himself. He didn't even know this girl and that's what infuriated him. He felt like he was obsessing over nothing. Because _nothing_ had happened. It was slightly ridiculous. He believed that is was exceedingly ridiculous. He'd never been this caught up over a girl. And there had been many. Beautiful women and plenty of girls during his time at Hogwarts. But they'd all just been great shags and growing up.

He could just picture her face; brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, freckles. The uniform he had only ever seen her in was boring, black, unfitting in the most infuriating way. Charlie couldn't help but wish he knew what lay below that pesky uniform. She was short. A lot shorter than was typical of Charlie's choice but he enjoyed how tall and big it made him feel. She'd come up to his shoulders and he'd had to bend to press his lips to her cheek.

That's twice that he'd kissed her cheek and with only that slight contact he'd become a little obsessed. She smelt of a spice and sweet at the same time. Almost like cinnamon.


	9. Phone Call

_A short one I'm afraid, trying to get back into the swing of the story while writing my dissertation and getting distracted by Andromeda and Ted Tonks in my other fanfic. (self promotion lol) Enjoy x_

Next morning Charlie awoke to an uncharacteristic banging from the room beside his own…Bill's.

"Ugh!" He cried pulling the pillow from underneath his head and placing it on top in an attempt to muffle the obvious, rhythmic banging of his brothers headboard against their adjoining wall. "Not in your mothers house she said." Charlie muttered into the pillow before flinging himself from his bed and pulling on a tshirt, before bounding quickly down the stairs.

In the kitchen were Hermione, Harry and Ron, all looking bedraggled in sleep and chatting contentedly with one another quietly, the early morning sun filtering through the windows. They looked up at his entrance into the room.

"Tea?" Harry asked from where he stood by the stove.

"Please Harry." Charlie said with a smile and took a seat beside Ron, who was opposite Hermione, the kitchen table between them.

"Why are you lot up so early anyway?" Charlie asked with a yawn, stretching and knocking Ron with as he stretched in unison.

Ron pushed him away roughly, "Could ask you the same question!"

"Now, now Ronald. No need to get rough. I'm awake because your eldest brother is having at it with his wife in the room next door to mine and unfortunately they were being rather loud." He told the room loudly, watching as a blush filled all of their faces.

"That's grim." Ron noted, making sure not to look Hermione in the face.

Charlie grinned as he met Hermione's bashful gaze, she moved in her seat uncomfortably. Harry set down four steaming mugs of tea and sat in the now awkward silence.

Charlie sat back, admiring his well-placed awkward conversation, sipping his tea as he did so.

"So…" Hermione began with a slight cough, obviously attempting to come up with some conversation. "What's the plan for the day then?" She asked, staring into her mug of tea.

"Oh, before you do make any plans." Charlie cut Ron off quickly before he could start. "Hermione, I need some help with something…muggle." He told her.

"Oh really? What is it?" She asked, suddenly sitting up in her chair, given a purpose she suddenly came to life.

Charlie looked over to see Ron eyeing him warily and even Harry looking confused at him.

"In private perhaps?" Charlie asked and gestured out the door into the garden as he stood up and left the table.

Out in the morning sun Charlie cast a quick "muffliato" at the door to make sure the two boys inside definitely couldn't hear.

"Hermione I need help with a girl." He said.

"What?" Hermione asked quickly.

"Well, not in that I _need_ help in _that_ way." He told her. "Only…she's a muggle see? And I have her number and need to phone her to set up a date. So I need help with the whole phone thing and like where to take her…that's muggle you know?" He realised afterwards that he'd said all of this very quickly and looked over to make sure she'd understood. Hermione had a soft smile on her face as she watched him, an all too knowing smile.

"Of course, not a problem Charlie." She sounded too understanding for Charlie's liking and he had the sneaking suspicion that it was because he was reminding her of Ron.

"So, I'm guessing you know how to use the phone?" She asked first.

"Yeah, I mean, hard not to with Dad's obsession and all. I was often brought in as his helper, answering on the other end."

She nodded at this and laughed softly. "Ok so you've just got to have somewhere to go right?" She asked.

"Yup." He couldn't believe how awkward he felt talking to a girl 4 years his junior about this. He could feel the blush making his ears hot.

"Ok, so where abouts is she based?"

"London."

"Ok so…there a plenty of cinemas…"She said but must have noticed the flicker of confusion on his face.

"They show films on them…big screens with moving pictures?" She told him.

"Ohh, yeah ok cool." He was pretty sure he knew what she meant, it sounded like a good idea though.

"I can give you an address for one if you want? You can just buy tickets when you get there. And maybe dinner?" She questioned.

"Yeah, I mean that's what I was thinking anyway." He told her. Dating tactics had been somewhat limited in Romania, what with the dragons taking up much of his time and there being limited girls on the reserve itself.

"Ok well I guess it depends on the dates and stuff and then we can work out whether you want to book anywhere and where…" Charlie suddenly felt overwhelmed, it all sounded like a lot of work.

"Thanks Hermione. Before I let you go, with the phone, do I just…type in the number?" He asked.

"Yeah." She told him with a smile and then walked back into the house to the boys who looked at her questioningly and began asking her a million questions, to which they got no answer.

Charlie spent the remainder of the day in the sun, playing make shift quidditch with Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Bill with Percy refereeing from the ground below. However as it was coming in dark and they'd eaten their tea and were filtering away from one another for the night Charlie slipped out the door and into the cooling evening and headed to his dads shed.

Inside were a million and one foreign and funny looking objects, some covered in dust, some lying open with their innards on display. It all looked very confusing, always had done in Charlie's eyes. But he spotted the phone at the back of the room on his dad's desk. He sat down in the old, squeaky chair that was really much too small for his bulky frame and pulled the paper he'd written Ros's number down on from his pocket before dialling quickly.

He sat tapping his foot on the floor as _ring_ and _ring_ he became more and more anxious. Suddenly the ringing stopped and a voice came through to his ear.

"Hello?" It said. It was male. Charlie really hadn't counted on encountering anyone other than Ros.

"Hi…um…is, er Ros there?" He asked, stumbling over and over his words.

"Sure." The voice said shrewdly.

There was a pause wherein Charlie could make out muffled voices.

"Hello?" Came the feminine tones of Ros down the phone.

"Hi, it's Charlie." He said.

"Oh, hi!" She said brightly.

"Hi, so I'm ringing about…well a date perhaps?" He asked, he could almost feel a lump of nervousness in his throat, he'd been out the game for too long.

She laughed softly, "Ok, when?"

"Maybe Saturday?" He asked hopefully, only three days away.

"I'm working Saturday…Sunday night?" She asked back hopefully.

"Yeah!" Charlie said and lifted his arm in a salute of victory. "I can pick you up from your house?" He said.

"Oh no, I'll have to get the tube into the centre if you're thinking of central London?"

Charlie panicked…this sort of stuff never mattered before. You could just apparate wherever you needed to be in a matter of seconds, none of this inconvenience.

"I'll get into Notting Hill Gate tube station if you want to meet me there?" She compromised.

"Sure. No problem." He scouted around the desk grabbing a pen and turning the ratty piece of paper over and wrote down _Notting Hill Gate._ "What time?" He asked.

"7.00pm?" She asked.

He wrote that down below, "Sounds good." He said, he could feel the grin on his face.

"Ok then." She said. "Sunday at 7.00…I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too." He told her.

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Wahoo!" Charlie crowed as he heard the phone go silent and slammed it back onto it's base.

Sunday really couldn't come fast enough for Charlie.


	10. First Date

_I humbly apologise for the lack of any updates here! It is due to dissertation dread/a trip to Berlin/other assessments! Pitiful excuses I know but sometimes you just can't write. I hope you all enjoy their first date...I know Charlie did._

The rest of the week sort of flew by in Charlie's mind. Nothing much happened for him, other than Fleur and Bill leaving the Burrow and making their way back to Shell Cottage, which he was both sad and pleased about. No more banging headboards against his bedroom, but then no Bill to banter with. At least it didn't take much to visit Shell Cottage, but knowing those two he'd have to give a few days warning otherwise he'd walk into something he most definitely didn't want to see. The house began to feel more and more normal to Charlie, not completely, it could _never_ truly go back to how it used to be. Especially when Fred's hand was no longer on the family clock, he hadn't noticed it at first, though when he did he ask his mum about its whereabouts she burst into tears and told hi that it had just fallen off and that it was somewhere inside the big old clock. Charlie nor his mother could stand to dig it out and so it stayed in the clock, lodged and lost but not forgotten.

The house had pits and peaks of busyness and solitude. Charlie found himself in both of them. Bill and Fleur were to come to tea twice a week and this made the house a lot busier in the evenings, however the days were a whole other story.

Percy and Mr Weasley were back in the Ministry working long hours in an attempt to help reorganise the Ministry of Magic, they always came back late from the office, tired and hungry but both said that there was already so much progress. George still spent much of his time at the shop in Diagon Alley however made appearances at his mum's insistence, knowing full well that he was not alone in his grief. Ron and Ginny were often around the house, though often with their respective counterparts, disappearing into the fields behind the house and to quiet rooms in the house.

Charlie questioned his mums leniency with the two couples and got an answer that thoroughly surprised and outraged him.

"Don't you think they deserve some peace Charles?" She had sounded a little affronted.

"Well yeah…I mean after everything…" Charlie replied stuttering over his words, completely shocked that she would take such a stance.

"Yes. They've been through too much, too young and they deserve time to be young." Charlie heard the tears in her voice as she thought over what the trio had told them one evening that week.

It hadn't been forced out of them, and they still hadn't told all but they had explained where they went and how they lived and the kind of mission that had been left to them. The entire family had been shocked, there were rumours running wild throughout the Wizarding world but hearing the story first hand and the dangers that the trio had faced made the family really begin to question the seriousness of the trio's involvement. How had three teenagers defeated the Dark Lord and faced so many other dangers on their own?

And so the days were quiet with the two couples spending their time together away from the house. Leaving Charlie and his mother to go about the Burrow doing odd jobs that needed doing. The house wasn't in it's best state as Charlie soon came to find with the list that his mother presented him with at the start of every day. He was doing gardening in the summer heat, his mother by his side and he honestly didn't mind that, the degnoming had started and the land needed weeding, soil turning and such. He knew his mum was enjoying his company after spending so many years away with only a few visits a year at most and so Charlie too made the most out of this time.

Sunday came by and after a shower, washing the days grimy tasks from his body Charlie set out for London. He arrived in Diagon Alley to find the streets bustling with patrons enjoying their Saturday evening, but Charlie turned away from the Wizarding world and made his way through the Leaky Cauldron and out into the just as busy streets of muggle London. He followed streams of people down the warmed streets, everyone dressed up, suddenly making Charlie very self conscious of his own clothing choices. Not something that usually occurred to Charlie, but for some reason he worried that he'd stand out as different, although he was wearing a light blue shirt and his good pair of jeans and he'd even cleaned his boots up a little for the date. His mum had been very keen to know where he was going so dressed up but Charlie had quickly left the house causing more questions to be thrown his way as he jumped the fence at the end of the garden and apparated away without answering one.

The tubes were confusing to Charlie and after struggling for fifteen minutes and then having to ask a stranger passing by which line he should be taking to get to Notting Hill Gate, did he make it through, although he did have trouble with the machines both buying tickets and attempting to get through the gates themselves and as such he was running considerably late. Dashing up the moving stairs to get out of the tube and onto the streets above he found himself faced with swarms of people walking the street making it exceedingly difficult to find the one person he was looking for.

"Charlie!" Called a voice and he turned and found that he could just make out the eyes and forehead of his date above the crowd. Turning around Charlie quickly made his way to just below the Notting Hill Gate tube sign where she stood. Charlie couldn't help but let his eyes rove over her body as he came to face her. Her dark hair was loose about her, shining in the late evening summer sunshine, coming down just below her shoulders and curling a little. But her hair wasn't what captivated him so, her body had been hidden under ungainly uniform the only other times he'd actually seen her. And here she stood in a short dress that hugged her every curve, and did she have curves. The dress was a simple, powder blue that brought out the tanned colour of her skin, skin that glowed in the evening sun. Her legs were toned and slender, leading to a hips and a waist that undulated perfectly with a slight chest on her. She looked beautiful and sexy to Charlie all at once and as he came to stand right in front of her perhaps a little too close, it took him a moment to be able to recalculate his brain to actually speak to the woman before him.

"Ros." He said, his hand coming to the back of his neck as he felt the beginnings of a flush. "Sorry I'm late…had trouble with the tubes." He told her honestly.

"It's fine, I mean I totally get it, they're difficult to get used to." There was a pause. A pause that suddenly had Charlie wondering whether he had perhaps been too rash in his thoughts on Ros. Maybe their somewhat seemingly magnetic connection had all been in his imagination?

Taking a deep breath, Charlie lifted his eyes from the woman below him, in height and watched the other people making their way through the busy London streets, laughing and talking all the time, silence couldn't really be found out here on the street.

"So what do you want to do?" He asked her, glancing back down to meet her brown-eyed gaze.

"Aren't you supposed to have thought of that already? I mean it was you that asked me to go on the date in the first place." She said, folding her arms and looking up at him cockily.

"Well, I am only just becoming newly reacquainted with England right now so I feel that perhaps I am a little out of the know." He said, though he did have ideas up his sleeve, he hadn't actually come fully prepared…but when had he ever?

"Alright then." Ros calculated and looked about as though searching for inspiration.

"Food first." Charlie announced suddenly.

Ros smiled, "Absolutely." She agreed before reaching out and taking his hand and dragging him to her side to walk and then let go quickly as though suddenly embarrassed at her own audacity. Charlie looked over to her and saw a blush on her cheeks and grinned to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets and holding back his usual large strides to walk in time with her.

"So where are we going?" He asked.

"You'll have to wait and see." She told him with a soft smirk that he found adorable. "Still enjoying being home?" She asked him as they continued down the streets of London.

"Absolutely. It's actually really nice, it's been too long I think, no, I know it's been too long."

"How long?" She asked.

"About a year since I was last home and that had only been for a week or so."

"That is a long time. I bet your family is glad to have you back..." She said, leaving the question open.

"They're all very happy, all seven of them." He told her looking for a reaction, and he received she turned to him aghast.

"Seven?" She exclaimed loudly in the street.

Charlie guffawed "Yes seven, including mum and dad."

"Still, that seems very excessive."

"Well, it's what I've always been used to."

"So what number are you?" She asked interestedly, moving slightly closer to him as they continued to walk. Charlie could see her glancing up at him from the corner of her eye every so often as she lead them down the streets.

"Number two of six." He still didn't feel right attempting to even explain Freddie so he left him out, which felt no better than if he'd actually brought him up in the first place, but Charlie continued on in the hopes that the conversation would move on and so could he.

"Wow…That's a lot of siblings." She pointed out.

"Yup."

"I was the number one and only. I bet that's a strange thought for you and your overly large family."

"Yeah…I just couldn't imagine not having them." He said, but felt his heart ache at the fact that one of them was missing. "So it's you and your mum and dad?" He asked attempting to move the conversation wholly onto her.

"Yeah, they worked a lot, but we have a good friendship base at home. It seemed that there was a large influx of young couples who were settling down in our village at home at the same time my parents moved there." She told him.

"Where's home for you then?"

"In the Yorkshire dales, a tiny village surrounded by fields and farms, miles from any decent shopping, nothing like here." She said and gestured about herself, seeming somewhat in awe of the city that surrounded her.

"Sounds very much like where I'm from, but I'm down in Devon." He told her as they meandered on, him following her lead through the muggle streets.

"How did you get here then?" She asked with a confused face. Charlie almost hit himself in the head, he hadn't thought about the fact that he was supposed to have come from home, Devon to go on a date with her.

"Oh, um, my-my brother has a flat in London." He stumbled over his words.

"Oh cool. I'd ask where but I still haven't got to grips with London so I wouldn't know. And likely you wouldn't even know." She said and bumped her slight body into his. Her arm grazing his own in the dying summers heat. Her skin felt soft against his arm and Charlie found he rather enjoyed the feeling and somewhat revelled in it when she didn't move away from him a blush on her cheeks once more.

"Good observation." He told her looking down to see a smile playing on her lips. "And you're here for what was it?"

"An internship, only for two weeks but it's not paid so that's why I'm working in the bar. I'm also living on a friend's sofa while I'm here. Very glamorous." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"So what are you doing the rest of the year?"

"University, going into my final year now, I'm studying English Literature."

"Brilliant. I was never one for literature unfortunately, although my brothers girlfriend never seems to not have a book in her hand." He told her, the words just coming freely about his family, naturally.

"Well I love it." She told him as she reached out and grasped his forearm and pulled him off the main street and into a tiny oriental restaurant that had lanterns hanging from the ceiling, casting a soft glow over the few patrons sitting at the small tables. "You do like Indian right?" She asked, suddenly looking quite young and vulnerable in Charlie's eyes.

"Of course." Charlie said and watched in relief as a smile lit up her face. In fact Charlie had only ever experienced Indian food once before and it hadn't been his favourite experience. David being a muggleborn had introduced the cuisine to him on one of his many visits and had insisted he try the hottest one. Charlie had since vowed to never again eat Indian food. But this girl, who's hair shone in the setting sun, casting auburn tones to it's deep brown colour and who's eyes were shining happily, this girl he didn't think he could say no to.

They were seated towards the back of the tiny restaurant, the tables by the windows already having been taken, they were given menus and left to their own devices.

"How do you feel about ordering a few things and then just sharing?" She asked staring down at her menu in concentration.

"Sounds good for me, I have to say it has been a while since I've had Indian so I mean you can have free reign on the menu…just nothing _too_ spicy." Charlie told her.

"I thought you said you liked Indian food?"

"I do. I do, I just, not too spicy." He told her without meeting her gaze, keeping it on the worn wooden table below him.

"You could have said, we can go somewhere else." She told him and almost readied herself to leave.

"No, please." He told her reaching out as he did and holding her hand in his own in an attempt to appease her. She looked a little shocked but tucked herself under the table a little more and Charlie released his hold on her, his hand tingling somewhat.

"Ok, well maybe we'll share some bits and you can have a not so spicy dish and I'll have something _super_ spicy." She grinned at him over her menu.

Charlie laughed and picked up the menu to look at only to find that he didn't really understand what was being presented to him, foreign names that he just could not understand. Placing the menu down instead of attempting to understand it, which had always been Charlie's technique through school, and instead surveyed the girl in front of him while she was busy looking at the menu. Her hair, down and curled slightly looked exceedingly soft and all Charlie really wanted to do was run his fingers through its length. Her eyes had a dark, smudged around them making her seem sultry, especially when she glanced up to meet his gaze and smiled softly at him. Charlie also noted the magnificent view of her cleavage from his viewpoint, the advantage being his height.

She looked up suddenly at the approach of the waiter who asked for the order to which she replied with what sounded like a lot of food. She finished her order with a pointed look to Charlie at which he looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders quickly.

"He'll have a korma." She said with a roll of her eyes that had both Charlie and their waiter laughing. "And two lagers." She said and the waiter left.

"Guessing my food order was one thing but my drink order too?" He demanded of her, unconsciously leaning forward into the table. Charlie noted that she took a similar position to him, both leaning into one another.

"Well, it may have been a guess but seeing as how I have taken your drinks order before I do know that you happen to like beer." She told him smirking all the while, her hand lifting to twirl her hair around her finger and Charlie was all of a sudden very jealous of said finger.

The two sat as drinks and food kept appearing on the table, talking all the while, about families and friends as steadily the food on the table began to disappear.

"I'm _so_ full." Ros moaned, falling back from the table and into her chair swigging from her third beer.

"Agreed." Charlie, drinking his fourth beer raised his glass in a mock salute to her. "That was amazing."

"I thought you didn't like Indian food." Ros teased.

"Well maybe you've converted me." He told her with a wink and watched as she blushed, Charlie couldn't help but love the way her skin changed as she blushed.

"What time is it?" She asked suddenly.

With a look at the watch on his wrist Charlie told her that it was 10.30pm in shock. A look out the window showed the couple in the restaurant how much time had passed without their realisation. It was dark on the streets, only the street lamps lighting the way.

"Wow, we should get the bill." Ros noted and quickly asked for it.

"I'll pay." Charlie told her and took the bill from the waiter as he brought it over.

"No I'll pay half at least." She told him reaching into her handbag for her purse.

"No, no. Honestly." Charlie told her rummaging through his own wallet for his muggle money and once more, becoming stumped at how it all worked. Looking up he caught her watching him with a smirk that had her biting her lip.

"Need any help there sir?" She asked coyly.

"Well if you don't mind helping…still not used to it." He muttered under his breath feeling embarrassed as he passed his wallet over to her, only to be stumped as she held the hand with wallet in one of her own as she worked her other hands fingers through the compartments. The hand holding his own felt delicate and tiny beneath his but it was warm and soft he looked up to her face to find her concentrating on the task at hand and he hoped, once again, that she wasn't paying too much attention to the foreign money in there. Pulling both her hands away she then quickly reached into her own purse pulled out a note and handed the mixture of his own muggle money and hers to the waiter, standing quickly as she did and making her way out into the cooling Sunday evening.

"I said I'd pay." He told her as he joined her on the pavement once more.

"Yes and I wanted to help so we paid half each. Equal." She told him with a grin as she folded her arms about herself and shivered a little in the evening air.

"Well, thank you." Charlie said and placed an arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side. She seemed grateful and snuggled deeper into his side as they began to walk slowly through the night.

"I'd say we could continue the night somewhere else but Sunday nights really aren't the best for late nights and I do have to be in the office tomorrow." She told him softly in the now quiet night streets.

"So this date would have continued if it could have?" Charlie asked curious, glad that she had seemed to enjoy his company as much as he had enjoyed hers.

"Yep." She told him lightly. "We'd have gone on to this bar that's not too far from here that's loud and raucous, especially on a Saturday night."

"Sounds like a great night." He told her and she giggled softly moving closer to his side so that they were walking with no space between them.

"We'll just have to have another one." She told him and looked up to see his reaction. Charlie couldn't help but grin down at her.

"Brilliant idea." He told her squeezing her shoulder and continuing down the street, perhaps with even more of a spring in his step.

The tube sign for Notting Hill Gate came into view and Charlie didn't want it to end, not quite yet. The streets were practically empty and there was a slight chill to the air now, but she was all the life that he needed in that moment; bright and warm against his side.

"Let me walk you home?" He asked quickly as the tube sign only got closer.

She stopped still and looked up at him curiously. "I hope you don't think I'll be inviting into the house, I mean a) not my flat, b) I'm sleeping on a sofa and c) I'm not that kind of gal." Out of his grasp he could see goose bumps appearing on her tanned skin, she ticked off each reason on her fingers and looked defiantly at him once she'd finished, as though asking him to argue with her.

"Well-no-I…I just want to walk you home and then I'll go home too." He told her, stumbling again and again on his words under her gaze. She smiled at him and moved back to fit into his side, taking the hand from his side and laying it back over her shoulder. She began walking again and Charlie kept pace with her his fingers moving softly against the skin on her shoulder, he couldn't help but let his fingers play with the soft skin below his fingertips. Ros didn't seem to mind, in fact she seemed to sigh at the ministrations in a very contented way.

"When do you go back home then?" He asked her suddenly.

"Well I'll be finished in the office on Friday and I won't be working at the pub next weekend but I'm hoping to camp on Hayden's sofa for that weekend and then go home on the Monday for a few weeks and then it'll be back to Bath for me."

"You'll be a lot further away soon then." He noted, a little disappointed having hoped that perhaps this could have been something…more.

"But I'll be coming back down to London quite a bit to see friends and such, I'll keep in touch with you. Let you know what's…going on." Ros said, though seemingly had turned shy.

"Brilliant." Was Charlie's only reply as they walked on.

"This one's me…well Hayden's that is." She told him and removed herself from his side, rubbing her arms as she did so. "I had a wonderful evening Charlie." She told him grinning softly at him.

"I-yes it was great." Charlie told her, feeling a blush creep to the tips of his ears.

Ros took a step forward her lip between her teeth as she moved so that her head was inclined fully to see into his face. Charlie lowered his own face, his hands running up and down her arms for her as hers rested softly against his chest and Charlie touched his lips to Ros's. She was soft in all senses in that moment, her lips beneath his own were warm and soft and brilliant, her arms soft and smooth, soon he was pulling her closer his mouth opening with her own and his tongue flicking against her own in a delectable way. They stood close, kissing softly in the moonlight of a summers evening until Ros pulled back and giggled at Charlie's face at the abrupt end.

"I've got to go in." She told him before reaching up on her tiptoes to press her lips once more against Charlie's still shocked lips before she turned to the door, where she struggled with the handle, jimmying it up and down a few times before it let her in. She closed the door but then bent down and Charlie watched as the letterbox opened and she shouted through.

"Thanks for a lovely evening Charlie. Night!" And with that she disappeared.

Charlie stood for a moment outside her door, shocked and in a state of bliss. He hadn't been with a girl romantically for a while and in that somewhat simple kiss with Ros he'd felt stirrings for the first time in a bit. But she'd run off so quickly, he couldn't have acted on them anyway. Charlie grinned at the now empty door and lifted his hand to the back of his neck and began to walk back up the street to where he'd seen an alleyway he could apparate home from.

What Charlie hadn't realised was that there was a blushing girl watching from her window, blushing a bright red and touching her smiling lips as he disappeared into the night and down the next street…or so she thought.


	11. Family Life

_Ok, so I really apologise for the length of time between chapter here. I sometimes have loads of ideas for Charlie and other times...nuthin. So not too much going on in this chapter, family times. But the next chapter will definitely see some more Charlie/Ros. Thanks for reading and Review! xx_

Reappearing at the gate of the Burrow after his date Charlie couldn't keep the grin from his face as he made his way back up to the front door. On opening he found himself facing his mum, knitting needles clicking together in the air in front of her while she held a copy of witch weekly in her lap. Her eyes left the gossiping pages at his entrance and locked onto his in an instant, the knitting needles before her standing still in their movement.

"Hello." Charlie mumbled looking away from his mothers inquisitive stare and perching himself in one of the squishy chairs and began unlacing and kicking off his shoes before leaning back into the chair and crossing his arms meeting his mothers stare once more.

"Where have you been Charlie dear?" His mum asked a little too flippantly as she flicked her wand at the knitting needles once more and they began their clicking again.

"Nowhere really mum." He told her watching her pretend to flick through the pages of her magazine again.

"Charles." Her tone had given up on the act, it was stern and a little upset. "Don't hide things from me. Are you in trouble?" She asked.

"Trouble?" He queried in shock.

"Yes, you're dressed smart and I don't know you didn't tell _anyone_ that you were going out tonight or where you were going. What's a mother to think?" Her knitting needles had stilled once more but she hadn't even noticed this time.

"Mum, I'm not in trouble. Promise." He told her, standing from the armchair and moving to sit on the arm of his mother's chair, resting an arm around her tense shoulders. "I went…on a date." He told her with a roll of his eyes and felt her relax beside him and she turned toward him to look in his eyes. Hers were bright and shining and she had a large smile on her lips.

"Oh Charlie, why didn't you just say?" She told him, swatting his arm lightly. "Who was the girl?" She asked quickly.

Charlie could tell that for his mum this was a good thing. She had always believed that love, not only familial love, would help heal the worst of wounds, losing both her brothers had been beyond difficult for her but she always said that Arthur's love for her got her through the pain. Charlie understood that looking around this family, nearly everyone had someone to love like that. Just himself and perhaps Percy were without that…someone.

"Mary Lamb?" His mum asked breaking the silence. "She's such a lovely girl Charlie and I saw you two dancing together at Bill's wedding, you looking darling together." She mooned.

"No! Not Mary Lamb mum, you know I think she's boring." He told her.

"Oh Charlie she is not! She's lovely, very sweet and helpful. But then who?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest telling him that she was not going to give up on this lightly.

Charlie sighed and stood from the arm rest and paced a little in front of her while she looked on, a worry line forming in the middle of her forehead.

"Just spit it out Charlie!" She told him.

"She's a muggle." He told her and felt something like a weight lift from his shoulders. He'd never really hidden anything from his mother, she'd been in the know of his many love interests of his school days, it was just something they'd always talked about quite openly. But now she stared at him with wide eyes, shocked and confused.

"A muggle? You mean muggleborn?"

"No mum, Muggle. As in…muggle." He looked away from her shocked face and down to his socked feet, noting a hole in the big toe of the left sock.

"What's she like?" She asked recovering from her shock and asking the question as though this were no different from any of the other times. Charlie looked up to gauge her real reaction and saw a small smile and knowing eyes that were boring into his own. And he began to tell her how they'd met and how he'd run into her again and how he just felt as though there was something that could be there between them. As he explained and told her of the date that night his mother began knitting once more watching him closely the whole time.

"She sounds lovely Charlie." Molly told him once he'd finished. "But you do have to remember to be careful." She warned.

"Mum I know." He said with a roll of the eyes.

"No, you really do. You can get in a lot of trouble if you go about this wrong. No telling her until your _serious_ …truly _serious_ Charlie. Not just on a whim, otherwise the obliviators will be brought out. Also you're supposed to report it to the Ministry, so that they can keep a track on her."

Charlie couldn't believe it, his face screwed up in confusion.

"I know it sounds like a lot darling but it's just precautionary, we don't want the Statute of Secrecy broken now do we. You just have to be careful." She told him softly and then gave a yawn.

"Right." He said and began thinking that perhaps he should do a little research into this.

"You don't have to tell the Ministry straight away. I mean, you're supposed to I think but…what they don't know can't hurt them." Molly told him stopping her knitting needles and placing them back in the basket by her chair before standing up and making her way to bed.

"Don't think on it all too much Charlie dear. Goodnight." She told him from the doorframe and disappeared through it. Charlie heard his mum make her way up the stairs but he continued to sit there in the chair, lost in thoughts of Ros and the ministry.

Charlie awoke sometime later, the sky outside the living room windows lightening some in the coming dawn, he moved from his slumped over position in the chair he'd apparently fallen asleep. Cracking his neck he got to his feet stretching and was about to make his way upstairs to bed when he heard a noise in the kitchen. Making his way through slowly he found Ron and Harry sat at the kitchen table with two glasses of water in front of them, not talking just sat. They both looked up quickly at his entrance and Charlie saw the wands in their hands pointed at him within an instant. He raised his hands in shock and watched as they both dropped them to the table at the sight of him and fall back into attitudes of exhaustion.

"What are you two doing up?" He asked confused and still half asleep.

"Nightmares." They both answered in unison.

"Ahh." Charlie said nodding his head and standing at the end of the table staring at the two of them. "It's just going to take time." He told them in reassurance.

They both nodded shuffling awkwardly in their seats.

"Why are you up?" Ron asked Charlie quickly in an attempt to move the conversation on.

"Fell asleep in the living room." He told them gesturing with his thumb to the room he'd just come from.

"Where did you go tonight?" Ron asked again.

"Why the million questions?" Charlie asked back placing his hands on his hips.

"Just wondering." Ron muttered taking a swig from his glass.

"A _date_ little brother." He told him before making his way over to the stairs. "You should think about taking Hermione on one." He said with a smirk.

"What? Why?" He asked suddenly intrigued.

"She gave me the ideas for it." He told him and watched as Ron frowned heavily.

"Oh." Was all he replied with.

"Don't worry. I'll give you some tips little brother." He told him before walking up the stairs and into his old room, before falling onto the bed and falling back to sleep once more.

Charlie hadn't really wanted to wake up from his dozing, Ros had been at the forefront of his mind for what had remained of his nights sleep and as such he awoke with a throbbing stiffness between his legs and her smell permeating his dreams. A knock at his door startled him and he roughly pulled his sheets up to his chin as a voice called out.

"Charlie! Breakfast's ready!" It was Ginny.

"Right!" He shouted, feeling as though he had regressed into a teenager again.

"Now Mum says!" She shouted.

"I'll be down in a minute!" He shouted back, attempting to decide how to go about his morning hard on.

"Not my fault if she murders you." Ginny mumbled and Charlie listened to her footsteps descend the stairs.

With a sigh Charlie closed his eyes and let his hand fall under his covers and take hold of his cock, his thoughts fell to Ros and that dress she had worn, blue, fitted, her tanned legs, the view of her cleavage at the table, her lips. He was just beginning to undress her in his mind when heavy thudding footsteps came pelting down the stairs and suddenly his door was open, filling his room with the morning sunlight from the hallway and Ron stood choking on his words of "breakfasts ready!"

"Ron get out!" Charlie roared, feeling ridiculous at being caught with his hands down his pants by his youngest brother.

Ron just began laughing loudly, turned, leaving the door wide open and continued on thundering down the stairs his laughter bouncing around the stairway. Charlie didn't think he could be any more embarrassed but then Hermione skittered past his open door, her lips pressed together tightly.

"Ugh!" Charlie groaned, though at least he didn't have to worry about his hard on anymore though.

After a morning of humiliation, snide remarks and sniggering siblings Charlie decided that he needed to leave the house, he began to think that a trip to the Ministry of Magic might be in order, he had a few jobs to be enquiring about there. One of those being a visit to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Beast Division to see if he could speak to someone about his job. He hoped that perhaps a transfer could be set up; he just didn't want to leave the UK again for a while, doing the job he loved in Britain would be the ideal for the time being. He needed to be with his family, where he should have been all along perhaps, but he couldn't let that kind of thinking mar his past.

People had always questioned his sanity when he'd turned down the _many_ offers he had received from professional quidditch teams, but he had always known what he wanted to do. Dragons as creatures had just spoken to him, untameable, misunderstood, dangerous, things that Charlie prided himself as.

He was just shrugging into his leather jacket when there was a knock on his door.

"Charlie? You're not wanking again are you?" Ginny asked mockingly from the other side.

With a sigh Charlie moved to the door and swung it open to find his little sister leaning against the doorframe casually twirling a piece of her red hair about her finger.

"What?" He asked looking down at her. She'd suddenly become a woman, Charlie noted, she looked older, thinned out, lost all her puppy fat, grown an attitude that couldn't be rocked, something she had learnt from him.

"Just wanted to know what you were doing." She asked, eyes wide and Charlie saw a hint of his baby sister.

"Got some job to do at the Ministry first, then maybe Diagon Alley, I want the new Weird Sister's record, and then I might pester Bill and George…see if I can't hustle them into a drink or two." He told her as he straightened the collar of his jacket.

"Okay…can I come?" Ginny asked and once again reminded him of when she was younger, constantly wanting to be a part of her brother's activities and always left out.

"I don't think I could stop you now, even if I didn't want you to." He noted grabbing his wand from his desk and shoving it into his pocket.

Ginny's grin made his heart soar, "And you're right, I'd have just come anyway." She pointed out before she ran up the flight of stairs and quickly ran back down with an old flannel shirt on over her shorts and t-shirt, it was obviously a hand-me-down that had done the rounds of the family before it ended up in her wardrobe.

"Come on then." He said and they made their way down stairs and were just out of the door when a voice called to them.

"Where are you going?" It was Harry who was looking straight at Ginny, he was sat in the kitchen with Ron and Hermione, he looked concerned and, Charlie thought, a little put out.

"With Charlie to Diagon Alley. Just running errands." She said nonchalantly over her shoulder before stepping out and walking down the garden path to the gate.

Charlie said his goodbyes noting Harry's less than enthusiastic farewell and caught up to Ginny on the other side of the gate.

"So-."

"You'll have to side-along apparate me, Charlie." Ginny cut him off quickly taking hold of his arm, squeezing tightly, obviously wanting to avoid any discussion of The Chosen One whom she was leaving behind in the kitchen.

"Alright." Charlie said with a smirk on his face and twisted them both into darkness, reappearing in a quiet side street of London near the entrance to the Ministry.

"I've never got to use the guest entrance before." Charlie noted. "I always just went in with Dad."

"I have." Ginny said as she strode down the street as if she owned it.

"I know Miss _I've been in the Department of Mysteries_!" He still couldn't believe that she and Ron and their friends had broken into the Department of Mysteries on their own and faced death eaters, it made his head spin slightly.

Ginny slowed slightly, walking beside Charlie, the phone box in sight. "It wasn't as _cool_ as I made out you know." Ginny told him glumly as they stepped into the box and typed in 62448 on the panel.

"I know Gin." He told her, wrapping an arm about her shoulders as the phone box began to descend. "I mean I got letters from Mum _and_ Bill telling me all about it and how stupid you lot were, you were all seriously injured."

"Yeah but we're fine now." She pointed out quickly pulling away and crossing her arms across her chest.

"Really?" Charlie asked, it was nearly pitch black in the phone box now as they travelled further and further down underneath London.

"Well…I mean…not fine but…"

"No one can recover from what _you've_ been through this fast." He pointed out.

"I know! I just want it to be…normal again." She said almost stroppily, definitely reminding Charlie of her younger years.

"Give it time." Was all Charlie told her before dropping the subject as the Atrium of the Ministry came into view.

After signing themselves in as guests and Ginny commenting that perhaps she should have changed her outfit into something a little less casual, they headed for the elevators at the other end of the room.

Pressing number 4, Charlie and Ginny stood quietly in the elevator waiting till it stopped at level 4 with the woman's voice announcing their arrival overhead.

The office for Magical Creatures was teeming with people and creatures alike, in fact Charlie was almost certain there were more creatures than wizards in the large, open plan office space. It was utter chaos, there was no one at the reception desk only a funny looking, blue haired kneazle that was chewing and tearing up a piece of official looking parchment.

Ginny laughed at the creature and reached out to stroke it but it quickly turned and hissed, sharp pointy teeth bared at the two shocked, red heads who stood at the entrance.

"What can I do you for?" A friendly voiced said from behind them. She was a middle aged woman with mousey blonde hair and hard blue eyes. She squeezed between the two of them, placing down a large wad of paper on the desk and snatching the parchment from underneath the blue kneazle.

"Uhm, I'm here for a job…well transfer…it's complicated." Charlie told her stepping away from the elevator and closer to the desk, which the woman had made her way around and sat down on the singed chair that was behind it.

"Well no problem. You've come to the right place, we've got a million job vacancies and far more complications going on left, right and centre than I think you have." Her voice was brisk, almost rude but straight to the point; which Charlie didn't mind. "What division will you be wanting?" She asked, moving sheets of paper about, not really paying much attention to Charlie or Ginny.

"Beast division." Charlie told her as Ginny elbowed him in the side looking proudly up at her brother.

"Right, should have guessed." Said the woman eyeing Charlie up and down making him slightly self conscious, he tugged at the undone collar of his shirt, thinking perhaps he looked a little untidy. "You'll want to speak to Phil Devin, you'll find him down there on your left, through a little door and…yeah he'll be there." She told him turning quickly back to the mountain of pages before her on the desk.

"Thanks." Charlie muttered before going around her desk and turning left as she'd said.

"She was a bitch." Ginny remarked quite loudly.

"Gin! What would mum say?" He admonished teasingly.

"Mum's not here." She told him, wrinkling her nose and bumping his side so stumbled slightly. "Wow, that _is_ a small door." Ginny had beat Charlie around the corner and he moved to see what she was looking at and indeed, it was a small door. Half the height of Charlie at least. He looked around concerned but in that small area, there seemed to be no one to talk to, except for some imps in a small glass case, they didn't look too impressed though.

"Go knock." Ginny insisted and prodded Charlie in the back. "Go!"

"Alright!" Charlie said with a roll of his eyes. All he could think of, was that this was some stupid initiation like when he'd first joined the Romanian reserve and he'd been told he had to collect a urine sample from a Romanian Longhorn, that had ended in his first trip to medical in Romania.

With a couple of raps of his knuckle Charlie stood, bent at the waist waiting. After a moment a tiny man came hobbling out of the tiny door, one leg wooden, one mangled hand and a large burn scar on the top of his bald head.

"Yep?" He asked brusquely looking up at Charlie's shocked face.

Charlie had to shake his head quickly, "Hi…ur, I'm here about a job." Charlie said dumbly. He could see Ginny out of the corner of his eye looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Right…come in." The man said before disappearing back through the door.

Charlie quickly looked to Ginny who was pressing her lips together in an attempt to stop herself from laughing at the idea of Charlie getting through that door.

Charlie crouched down in front of the door and bent his head and made his way through into a large open room that was a lot tidier than the rest of the department. It was bright and airy, white walls lined with paintings and moving pictures that looked to be of family.

"Sit." The man said. Charlie did. "I'm Phil Devin, Head of the Beast Division here in the ministry. What department are you thinking of applying for?"

"Dragon Research and Restraint." He told him quickly.

Phil looked up sceptically. "Any experience?"

"Oh yeah! I've been in Romania for the past seven years at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary."

"Really?" Phil looked up in surprise. "Well then, you'll have worked with Lawrence Furber."

"Yeah, he was my boss out there." Charlie replied.

"Excellent, someone who actually knows what they're doing." Phil said leaning back into his overly large chair.

"Yeah just a few years in the business." Charlie said with a laugh, relaxing a little.

"You'll want to speak to Ben Lowther, he'll be the one you're reporting to…but I mean…we're desperate for people so…you're hired." Phil announced happily and held a hand out to Charlie.

Half in shock Charlie rose from his seat and leant over the large desk to shake Phil's hand. "Really?" He asked.

"Don't see why not. I'll get in touch with Lawrence Furber for more details about you…but I don't see why not Mr…"

"Weasley, Charlie."

"Well, welcome to the Beast Division Charlie Weasley."

Charlie really couldn't believe his luck.


End file.
